


A Prelude to the End

by Uponthemoorsx



Series: I've Touched Heaven and Returned Howling [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23582239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uponthemoorsx/pseuds/Uponthemoorsx
Summary: The Inquisitor's life was simple once. Simple, but good, a life and family that he wouldn't have traded the world for. He wishes he could go back.
Series: I've Touched Heaven and Returned Howling [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697545
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	A Prelude to the End

**Author's Note:**

> "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,  
> But I have promises to keep,  
> And miles to go before I sleep,  
> And miles to go before I sleep."  
> \-- Robert Frost (Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening)
> 
> Prologue theme: Retrying - Mossuto https://youtu.be/u2aKjHIzllg

Eldrin always sought out the company of the halla when the world was a bit too much for him. He may not have become _Halla'amelan_ like he wanted, but he found peace in their presence nonetheless. The _vallaslin_ marking his face was honoring them and the goddess they represented, _Ghilan'nain_. She was guidance, mother of the halla, and the reason why his people would always find their way home when lost.

El hopes that when this is over, she will do that for him.

He sits with his back against a tree, an old tree, with branches that hang low. The halla are spread out beneath the fall of its boughs, quietly grazing and making soft sounds in the night. Their white noise is always something that has soothed Eldrin’s soul to hear, quiet bleating and hooves gingerly stepping over earth. He’ll miss hearing it in the distance while he’s gone, along with all the other sounds of the forest, and the bustling of busy noise that is his clan.

Hopefully this Conclave resolves things quickly, allowing him to come back home to resume his life just like this.

However, as First of Clan Lavellan, it is his duty to learn and to prepare to become Keeper one day. This also included going where their current Keeper could not, busy doing the job that El was being trained for. He was Deshana’s right hand of a sort, going beyond where her reach ended. This was not new to Eldrin, already having ventured far to extend the reach and knowledge of his clan. However, he had never been sent on a mission quite so… dire.

Eldrin remembered the news that found their clan just days after what happened in Kirkwall, picked up by their hunters when they went to trade with the shemlen in Ostwick. Deshana told him later that night that she could feel it in her bones that the fallout from the explosion was going to be catastrophic and that they would all suffer the backlash. That feeling of dread and certainty remained in her bones for the next five or so years, and Eldrin had no idea whether it was paranoia or intuition that he now felt it, too.

That was one of the events that contributed to the start of the mage rebellion, a war between mages and templars that has raged on for the better part of a year now. The Keeper was right. She was always right.

Now there was a Conclave happening in Haven at the Temple of Sacred Ashes. This Conclave would be to settle the war, to bring a peace between mages and templars, an issue that should truly only impact humans. Eldrin didn’t think his people should get involved with a _shemlen_ war, yet, the Keeper had stressed that she sensed that this Conclave would be important to their people, to all elves. Something was about to happen, something that would greatly impact the world. Despite his reluctance, Eldrin knew better than to doubt his Keeper when she had a gut feeling.

So, she had chosen to send Eldrin ahead to the Conclave.

This would be his first venture into the _shemlen_ world well and truly alone, no clanmates by his side. Alone in an unfamiliar place where the end to a conflict and war would be sought. If not for the best interest of his people then El would have refused, but his Keeper’s adamant insistence of how dire things were to become had swayed him.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t terrified out of his fucking mind, though, quite the contrary. He had precious little time now to get himself together, since he would be headed out tomorrow to journey to the Conclave being held a week from now. He would not be able to show even a lick of fear at the temple, because even though the focus was peace negotiation, someone was still bound to notice a Dalish elf.

Out of necessity, Eldrin would leave his staff behind, a weapon that would mark him as a mage and increase the danger he would face on his journey. A staff was not needed to channel his magic and spells were still possible free handed, but a staff helped to focus and make them more accurate. Eldrin was by no means defenseless, but being sans a staff left him with less efficiency—not to mention all the damn templars that would be there.

With his luck, it’ll be _Falon’Din_ guiding him to the Beyond rather than _Ghilan'nain_ bringing him home.

“Hey.”

El nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of a voice, doesn’t register who it is until he whips his head in the direction. His face sours and he rolls his eyes.

“ _Fen’harel masa_ , Fennas!” El growls at his older brother, but that doesn’t discourage the hunter from taking a seat next to him at the base of the tree he’s sitting under. “Would it kill you not to sneak up on me maybe just this once? Please.”

“I mean, it wouldn’t kill me, but I’d certainly be bored.” Fennas says, bumping his shoulder against Eldrin’s.

Eldrin, not amused, slumps his back further down the tree and now folds his arms, grumbling under his breath at Fennas. “ _Lasa adahl su nar masa_.”

“I mean, you could talk to me instead of being a little prick and telling me to fuck off.”

Fennas doesn’t leave of course, simply waits for El to simmer down and stop his brooding before he’s actually willing to talk. It takes Eldrin a few minutes of sitting with his arms crossed and back shoved at an uncomfortable angle against the tree for him to admit defeat. He sighs, grumbling again but nothing coherent this time and straightens back up, resting his forearms on his now folded knees in front of him.

“... I just-- I have a really bad feeling about this, Fen.”

Another pause as Eldrin casts a glance at his brother, who is staring hard into the herd of grazing halla before them. Eldrin knows that he feels it, too. They all do.

“I know you do.” Fen still doesn’t look at him, but El can see how his golden eyes narrow at nothing in particular, jovial attitude sobering. “I’ve said I’ll go for you, that you’re not ready for this, but the Keeper won’t listen.”

Small and quiet, El answers, turning his head to look up at the moon. “I know… she says that I’m better equipped for whatever she feels is coming but I don’t… I don’t know about that.”

“You’re scared.”

“Yeah.” Eldrin nods, easily able to admit it with his brother.

Yet another bout of silence settles over them, heavy this time with the weight of uncertainty and fear. There is no telling if this has become a shared paranoia or if this gut feeling actually has some truth behind it, the only way to find out is to run head first into the fire.

“You won’t be alone the entire time,” Fennas reminds him, trying his little brother’s anxiety. “Clan Sabrae and Boranehn are sending some of their own as well to spy on the Conclave.”

“And somehow a group of Dalish elves won’t seem suspicious at some human peace talks?” Eldrin points out, beginning to fiddle with the end of one his auburn braids out of nervous habit.

Fennas shrugs, tilts his head back to rest it against the trunk of the old tree that they’re both leaning on. “You’re right, it’s gonna look a little weird. Though, none of us are strangers to staying out of sight and out of mind of nosey _shemlen_.”

That gets a laugh out of Eldrin, a quiet one, but still a laugh nonetheless. Fennas bumps his shoulder against Eldrin’s again and this time El nudges his shoulder back, some semblance of calm settling over him. One thing Fennas knows how to do better than anyone is calm Eldrin down or at least make him smile.

“It’s going to be alright, _isa’ma’lin_.” Fen says, reassuring Eldrin the best he can. “You’ll be back before you know it and all of this will be some shit hangover dream like that time we drank all the _manise_ on your eighteenth nameday--fuck, do you remember that?”

Eldrin snorts, then shakes his head. “What I do remember is puking my guts up for a day straight and _babae_ and _mamae_ being livid with you for the next week.”

“Okay, but it was worth it. Some of the shit you said-- do you remember almost falling in the fire?”

“I singed off my eyebrows!” Eldrin huffs, folding his arms again. “Yes, I remember it!”

“See? I knew you remembered!”

Fennas is laughing for a moment, then stops, making direct eye contact with El and it lasts for all of five seconds before Eldrin snorts and they both burst out laughing. They recount the events of that night to each other through fits of giggles and imitations of something stupid one of them had said. Eventually, they both calm down and grow quiet again, but the mood this time is lighter--hopeful.

“... Hey, Fen?” Eldrin speaks up after a while, looking at his brother again.

“Yeah, El?” Fennas replies, looking at his brother and quirking a brow.

Silence again, Eldrin looks beyond his brother and back to their clan, many people readying for bed. He glimpses their parents milling about outside of the family aravel, their mother hanging pelts out to dry and their father putting away his crafting supplies. He lingers on them for a moment more before turning back to Fennas.

“Just… stay safe while I’m gone.”

Fennas too looks over his shoulder, gaze landing on the clan and their parents, knowing full well what his brother means. Fennas looks back to him again and nods, sincere for once.

“We will. I promise.”

So, the brothers stare up at the moon in the crisp calm of the night, the halla grazing and minding their own. Off in the distance, the clan winds down for the night, ‘goodnights’ and ‘sleep wells’ are heard as candles are blown out and aravels go dark. The evening grows quiet and only the conversations of hunters out on their nightly watch rotations are heard, mingled with the crackling of the few lone fires kept going to provide just enough light. Familiarity, comfort, home. Everything Eldrin cares for and would do anything to protect-- and what he can only hope beyond hope that he will one day return to.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to one of my lovely beta readers @heyamiedraws over on instagram, go check them out!
> 
> Also a big thank you to everyone who took an interest in my Inquisitor, I wouldn't have gotten the nerve to finally write and post this had it not been for all of you. 
> 
> All Elvhen translations are from FenxShiral's wonderful Project Elvhen series. 
> 
> Translations:
> 
> Vallaslin - blood writing. the tattoos the Dalish receive when they come of age
> 
> Halla'amelan - halla keeper
> 
> Ghilan'nain - mother of the halla, the first halla, goddess of guides and navigation
> 
> Falon'Din - friend of the dead, god of the dead, he who guides the dead into the beyond
> 
> Fen’harel masa - dread wolf's ass
> 
> Lasa adahl su nar masa - shove a tree up your ass
> 
> Shemlen - quicklings, humans
> 
> Manise - Dalish liquor, whiskey 
> 
> Isa’ma’lin - brother
> 
> Babae - father
> 
> Mamae - mother


End file.
